This disclosure relates in general to satellite communications and, but not by way of limitation, to multi-satellite power limited communications.
Satellites are power limited. That is, satellites have a limited amount of power that must be used for communications, propulsion, processing, steering etc. Increasing the available power can be very expensive. Thus, satellite systems are often designed with tight power budgets. Providing increased power to a communication link can be very expensive. On the other hand, the quality of a communication link is proportional to the power of the communication link. Thus, a balance is often struck between quality and cost when considering power needs of a communication link.
Some satellites provide higher power forward service links and lower power return feeder links. For example, a satellite may provide 100 W forward service link and a 10 W return feeder link. Subscriber terminals are often small and have a broad beam and thus require higher power forward service link from the satellite. On the other hand, gateways often have large narrow beams that are pointed toward the satellite allowing for a lower power return feeder link.
Some satellites communicate with a gateway or subscriber terminals using right or left-hand polarized signals. Doing so allows a second satellite to operate within the same bandwidth and in the same geographic area using the opposite polarity without interfering with the first satellite and thus providing twice the bandwidth over a single satellite system. Other systems use other orthogonal signals other than right and left hand polarization.
There is a general need in the art to provide increases in the power of satellite communication links without greatly increasing the costs of the overall satellite system.